UFC, Welcome to the Motor City!

The Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s premier Mixed Martial Organization, made its return to the state of Michigan and the Detroit area on Saturday at UFC 218. The event featured a Featherweight title fight, a contender Heavyweight bout, and fight of the year candidate.

And it delivered.

The sellout crowd of 17,000 fans saw a great night of fights with great atmosphere at the new Little Caesars Arena.

Through the first four fights, three fights ended in knockout and one ended in submission, including hometown girl Amanda Cooper getting a second round Technical Knockout victory.

The preliminary card saw one of the best fights of 2017 as Yancy Medeiros beat Alex Oliveira by TKO after 11 minutes of a back-and-forth street fight. During the main card of the night, the championship belt was defended as champion Max Holloway beat challenger Jose Aldo by TKO.

The night was electric for every fight. As fighters of all different weights and origins were announced, they got a warm reception from the crowd at the arena. The crowd surrounding the fights were knowledgeable of the sport and enthusiastic about the event, the first in the state of Michigan since 2010 when the Palace of Auburn Hills hosted UFC 123.

If Saturday night was any indicator, the UFC will return to the city of Detroit soon enough. Despite some boos and some crowd woes (a fight broke out in the stands), the night, and the week surrounding the event, was successful.

Interested in getting into MMA? Watch this Saturday on Fox Sports 1 as Cub Swanson takes on Brian Ortega. The event starts at 9 p.m. and features six live fights from Fresno, California. Maybe I’ll see you at the next UFC event!